Saturday, August 29, 2009

Book Review: Shiver

Ever since she was a little girl, Grace has been visited by a wolf in the woods behind her house. This particular wolf seems to appear every winter and has the most amazing yellow eyes. After wolves attack one of her classmates, Grace's wolf appears to her one night... as a human. Sam. And Grace knows that she loves him. But she also knows that she's going to lose him. For as the temperature drops, Sam's days as a human are drawing to a close. And to be together, Grace and Sam have to be willing to risk everything.

Shiver was everything I wanted Twilight to be. There, I said it.

It's beautifully written. I didn't find any of the characters annoying. Both Grace and Sam narrate the story with chapters switching back and forth between their points of view. Even as Grace's obsession with Sam grows, she's still her own person.

I had one niggling complaint about the werewolf folklore, but it was answered towards the middle of the book. (I kept thinking, if you change when you get cold... move to Florida! But there's a reason they can't do that. It gets explained.)

I kept flagging passages of beautiful writing, like this one at the very beginning:

The day I nearly talked to Grace was the hottest day of my life. Even in the bookstore, which was air-conditioned, the hear crept in around the door and came in through the big picture windows in waves. Behind the counter, I slouched on my stool in the sun and sucked in the summer as if I could hold every drop of it inside me. As the hours crept by, the afternoon sunlight bleached all the books on the shelves to pale, gilded versions of themselves and warmed the paper and ink inside the covers so that the smell of unread words hung in the air.

This was what I loved, when I was human.

I knew at that point that I was in for a treat. It took me a little bit to get hooked into the story, but once I did, I didn't want to put the book down. I'm not sure what else I have to say about it. I'd promptly hand it over to Twilight fans (hi, Melody!) or fans of paranormal romance.

One of my best friends used to work at Scholastic, and she got to work on this book. She was so excited about it and kept telling me I absolutely must read it! :) I'm glad to know you liked it too. But now, the dilemma -- it comes out the same day as Catching Fire. Which one should I read first? :)))

I'm almost finished with this book and plan on reviewing it soon. There where things that I didn't like about this books. Like the absolute neglectfulness of Grace's parents who apparently weren't bad people, but still neglectful? I don't know. We'll see how strongly the book finishes. :)

What I've Been Reading

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